Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. You may have a strong product development background, but typically have minimal experience in hiring and leading team members and groups, or managing financials.

Braxton Moral was deemed “really, really gifted,” from a young age. So gifted, it seems, that this spring the 16-year-old is expected to not only pick up his high school diploma, but a degree from Harvard, too.

Image: Ulysses High School senior Braxton Moral sits for a portrait at the school in Ulysses, Kan., on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. The 16-year old is set to graduate from Harvard and high school in May 2019. Sandra J. Milburn—The Hutchinson News/AP

Despite a growing culture of risk aversion in the face of mounting economic uncertainty, corporate businesses will continue to invest in their relationships with startups, according to research by U.K. innovation agency NESTA and advisory firm Mind the Bridge.

The two organisations interviewed more than 30 “innovation leaders” from companies, such as Samsung, Virgin, Barclays and ABInBev in November this year and their responses formed the basis of a newly released report that looks forward to 2019 in terms of the evolving relationship between technology startups and their counterparts in the corporate world.

Image: Lack of resources continues to hold back open innovationSOURCE -STARTUP STOCK PHOTOS/PEXELS

Throughout the 20th century, the American Midwest was known as the manufacturing center for the nation, and for much of the world. Even today, a majority of agricultural commodities are developed and produced there. However, does the Midwest also have the capability to be a burgeoning place for technological startups? In Jason Rowley’s article “Here Are The Top Midwestern States and Cities For Startups,” from techcrunch.com, he argues that the answer is yes. And to come up with that answer, he dives deep into the numbers.

When I call Alana, she’s busy packing for the Thanksgiving break—she’ll be heading back to the US for the holiday. Despite the stress of travelling, she’s eager to talk about what she deems her “scattered” career journey that took her to the MSc in Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School.

“My original plan was to go to a PhD in clinical neuropsychology,” she explains. Alana worked at Boston Children’s Hospital for almost three years doing neuropsychological assessments and research and afterwards cemented her interest in the field with a Masters in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Image: Alana is originally from Puerto Rico, and has studied at Northeastern University and Harvard - https://www.businessbecause.com

At some point in their life, hopefully everyone strives to be the best in their chosen profession. Most people think that being the best requires more intelligence, more training, and more experience. In reality, in business or even in sports, the evidence is conclusive that it is as much about how you think, as what you do.

The US health care system relies heavily on private markets. While private insurers, provider organizations, and drug and device companies are familiar to many, little is known about the increasing presence of venture capital in today’s delivery system. The growth of venture capital and venture capital -backed, early-stage companies (startups) deserves the attention of patients and policy makers because advancements in medicine are no longer exclusively born from providers within the delivery system and increasingly from innovators outside of it. 

We are all about emerging technologies here at Tech Review—including those that might never make it past the “emerging” stage. Here are some of the more recondite inventions we have covered this year, many of them plumbed from the arXiv, the pre-publication academic paper database.

As the fintech landscape continues to evolve, a look at the newest developments from across the globe.

Fintech, the portmanteau of finance and technology, represents the collision of two worlds—and the evolution of the use of technology in financial services. Financial services and technology are locked in a firm embrace, and with this union comes both disruption and synergies.

Given all the data showing otherwise, it’s hard to believe that institutional funders don’t know that women entrepreneurs have a harder time raising money. For example, investors ask male founders questions related to promotion or gain and female founders questions related to prevention or loss, according to Dana Kanze’s research among TechCrunch Disrupt competitors. The different focus resulted in men raising five times as much as women.

One of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of state programs intended to encourage the success of SBIR applications is the approval-rate of their submissions. Although this data has been historically unavailable across every federal agency, it is now accessible for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the second largest provider of SBIR/STTR awards, according to a 2018 Digest report. The NIH distributed $446.2 million in SBIR/STTR awards in 2017, with every state except North and South Dakota receiving an award.

The past year has been a prolific one for the European venture ecosystem, with a record $23 billion invested and $107 billion in exits for European VC-backed companies. This latter figure highlights a rather surmountable gap when compared to the U.S., which saw $136 billion in exits.

There are reasons to be optimistic, although not due to lack of challenges. Concern has emerged regarding the impact of technology on society. More specifically, it is difficult to ignore the discrepancy between the speed of technological innovation and the much slower rate of societal change to complement it (i.e. job automation).

Resolutions go hand in hand with the start of a new year. And Dry January, the annual initiative to stop drinking alcohol for the first month, is one of the more popular New Year’s challenges, drawing in millions of people in multiple countries each year.

Should you try it in 2019? Here’s what experts say.

Leading consumer goods companies can revive their flagging innovation capacities by investing differently.

Disruption in slow motion has been the theme of the consumer goods industry in recent years. Despite rising global demand, the biggest FMCG companies are being outmanoeuvred in the marketplace by agile, digital-savvy upstarts. The little kids are stealing the big kids’ lunch – between 2011 and 2016, US$22 billion in FMCG sales shifted from larger to smaller companies in North America alone, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Xconomy New York —  (Editor’s Note: Euan Robertson, the Director of Strategic Planning & Special Projects at Columbia Technology Ventures, co-wrote this article.) It is a commonly held belief that academic research institutions, including those in New York City, are fierce competitors. In some ways, that may be true: Universities battle with each other to matriculate the best students, attract and retain the world’s leading faculty, and win the most research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other federal agencies.

For the second year in a row, the Mediterranean diet was named the best diet in America by U.S. News & World Report.

Following a Mediterranean diet involves eating lots of plants, whole grains, healthy fats (such as olive oil) and lean proteins, and cutting back on processed foods, red meat and refined sugars. The diet has long been linked to many health benefits, including lower risks of cancer and heart disease, better kidney health and a healthier gut.

(ST. LOUIS) — Vermont’s population is among the smallest in the U.S., but a study from United Van Lines indicate people are moving to the New England state.

The suburban St. Louis-based moving company on Wednesday released its 42nd annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns.

With every end to a year there are predictions and expectations for what the incoming year will bring. So following the twists and turns of 2018, what can the business world expect in 2019?

There will potentially be a further decrease in global stock market values, leaving a mass of venture capital fuelled tech businesses without a route to liquidation and thus no means to return value to investors. This is important as many so-called ‘unicorn’ businesses tend to rely on the public markets for the $1billion plus liquidation events or exits.

Work is changing and so is society as a whole.

Debates on its future have been particularly animated over the past three years, (re)launched by discussions on digital technologies, self-employment, individuals with multiple careers (slashers), universal income, or questions of new forms of management, solidarity and governance.

Two things will shape upskilling in the 21st century.

1. Millennials taking over the workplace.
2. Faster adoption of new technology.

A young population and faster adoption of new technology mean employees need to upskill quickly. Jobs which are the highest paying today didn’t even exist 7-10 years ago. The speed at which industry is changing means employees who do not upskill quickly will see stagnation in their careers. This is the biggest threat to the new generation.